DARDANELLE — When Jana Cook began competing in bodybuilding events, she had no idea she’d take second place in the bikini division of the Jackson Classic in Jackson, Tenn. — her first time out the gate in 2011.

Since then she has gone on to finish second in the National Physique Committee (NPC) Battle of the Bluff in Tunica, Miss., won the Northwest Classic in Bentonville in the bikini and figure division, and most recently third in the bikini division of the NPC Arkansas State bodybuilding competition on Aug. 3.

Cook, who owns The Body Shop in Dardanelle, said she began competing as an extension of her regular fitness routine.

“It just started with me working out,” she said. “I don’t know how I got into it, really. I knew some people who were into it and people started telling me that I should start looking into competing. I’d seen the other girls and I thought, if they can do it, I can do it, too.”

The 28-year-old said she has competed mostly in the bikini division throughout her two-year career, but added that she is hoping to make the jump to figure, which is more muscle oriented, when she competes again in 2014.

“I teetered this year,” she said. “I was getting a little too muscular for bikini, so next year figure is my goal. I plan to stop the bikini division and go full figure next year.”

Cook divides her time between her responsibilities at the gym and her responsibilities at home. Besides running The Body Shop, she also works out for an hour or more every day and helps her husband, Justin Cook, take care of their two kids, Lilyan and Hallie.

“I do cardio seven days a week and weight train five days a week,” she explained. “My husband and kids are very supportive. He loves it.”

Cook knows what she will eat every day the moment she wakes up. Everything is pre-scheduled and there is no deviation.

“For breakfast I eat a fourth-cup of oatmeal, two egg whites,” she said. “Mid-morning I’ll have a protein shake. Lunch is five ounces of chicken with one cup of rice. For a snack I’ll have a sweet potato and a protein shake. Dinner is five ounces of chicken with a half cup of broccoli. Then, at 7 p.m., I’ll have another protein shake.”

“To me this is a lifestyle,” she said. “It’s not a hobby. It’s my life.”

Not everyone is entirely supportive of that lifestyle. Cook said some have expressed their ideas concerning what a woman should physically look like versus what a man should look like.

“I try to ignore it,” she said. “Everyone has their own opinion on what is masculine and what is feminine. I like the way I look and so does my husband, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. That’s how everybody should be.”